FBI Joins Probe Into Murder of Islamic Scholar, Wife

An Islamic scholar and his wife were stabbed to death Tuesday, and the FBI joined the investigation because of the husband’s connections to the Arab world, officials said.

Ismail Faruqi, 65, and his wife, Lois, 59, an art scholar, were found dead with multiple wounds in their suburban Philadelphia home, police said. Their 27-year-old daughter, Anmar Zein, was seriously wounded.

The weapon apparently was “a 15-inch survival-type knife” found near the body of Faruqi, a Temple University religion professor, said Lt. Detective Robert Krauser of the Cheltenham Township Police Department.

“It’s hard to say if anything was taken,” Krauser said. There were signs of a break-in and a struggle, police said.

Assassination Reports

The FBI was contacted because of Faruqi’s prominence in the Islamic world, said Sgt. Alan Butman, who refused to comment on reports that the couple may have been assassinated.

The FBI is providing investigative and technical assistance to local police, agency spokesman James McIntosh said.

Faruqi’s associates at Temple, where he had taught since 1968, said he was not involved in international politics, even though he traveled frequently to Arab countries.

Born in Jaffa, when the Israeli town was part of British-run Palestine, Faruqi came to the United States after World War II. He received a master’s degree at Harvard University and a doctorate at Indiana University before becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Faruqi, who had also studied at al-Azhar University in Cairo, came to Temple in 1968 from Syracuse University in New York, where he had been an associate professor of religion and founded the graduate program in Islamic studies.

Zein’s 18-month-old son and a 21-year-old sister, whose names were not available, were found unharmed, hiding in a closet in the big two-story dwelling.

Temple spokesman George Ingram said Faruqi is known for his work in Islamic religious studies. Among his books are “Historical Atlas of the Religions of the World” and “Christian Ethics.” His wife wrote “Islam and Art.”